It's literally not true that there are only two ways. I can think of a lot more ways to think about it. I don't agree at all that it's failure. At this point in his Celtics season they were about to go on a historic run and make the finals despite a first half full of clunky mediocre performance. You may not believe it, but this team catching fire the rest of the season would surprise absolutely no one who has followed Udoka's career. It would not surprise anyone if Sheppard and Amen were better floor generals in the second half of the season. It would not surprise anyone if we performed better since the rest of our schedule is 2nd easiest and home-heavy. Despite injuries and difficult schedule, we're in pace to win 50+. Our second half record could reasonably be a 60+ win pace. We're the best (2nd best?) home team in the league and have the most remaining home games. We have the second highest net rating in the NBA. Net rating has historically been an exceptional predictor of future performance. Unless you're the title favorite, it's not reasonable to treat this as failure or disaster. A 50-win pace despite significant injury problems, underdeveloped chemistry and a road heavy schedule. That's the reality of the situation. What do you give credit to for our 50 win pace? KD has never been that kind of floor raiser in his career. Who do you praise for this?
By "followed Udoka's career" you mean the - 1 NBA season - he coached before Houston, that you already mentioned.
Did you watch the last game? Ime abandoned the Amen PG experiment and stuck him back in the corner and handed the ball to KD to orchestrate the offense. Sengun is a shell of himself and even Amen was shouting back at Ime. This team is not sucking because of injuries, it is sucking because our coach absolutely stinks and our GM said out loud what we all already knew. Do you really think KD can carry this team to success playing 40 mins a game? We might get to a decent seed, because of our schedule going forward, but this team is broken.
“Is this just not our year?” Lol You idiot did not address any weakness this season. How dare you saying that?
It's funny you bring up the Udoka-coached Celtics team. That trade deadline they brought in a guard who would finish that year with the Celtics with a +12.7 net rating and a catalyst to that late season run. You may know him as Derrick White. Funny how Stone and Brad Stevens looked at their floundering roster and came to different conclusions. One decided he should quit. The other pushed in and made the Finals.
Yeah but that's literally one game right? We still won at a 50-win pace despite all the problems. Where are those 50 wins coming from because apparently we have no talent and the coach sucks. Like what's going right? Something logically has to be going right.
The last two losses look different to me than the other losses to inferior teams. I could be wrong and we go on a run, but it will still lead to a first round exit in my opinion. Sengun has lost his fight. The whole team other than Amen and Jabari quit on this game and last. Ime neutered Amen on the offensive side against a team that really has little rim protection and a sub par defensive PG. He really has no idea what he is doing.
Everyone on the Celtics had a high net rating the second half. That's not relevant anyway. Neither White nor Smart are floor generals anyway. Also very clearly: Udoka always has a better second half. That's not White-related. It's consistently the case for 3 seasons. I've extensively dug into the Celtics season and posted about it. There are plenty of articles which detail the fights/discussions between Udoka and the key playmakers. Man I'm frustrated right now with the team too but these analysis are way over the top. Step back, look at our team data, ask some non-Rockets fans what they think of our problems, see what the opponents coaches are saying about us after games. Things are not as bad as you think and I hope that feels like good news. Would you really bet against us winning at a 60-win pace the rest of the way and move up 1-2 spots on seeding?
I don't know maybe it's just me but honestly dude I don't see it. Yes I see mistakes and poor choices but I see all contenders going through phases of that. Ultimately we're on a 50-win pace regardless. It really feels like we're catastrophizing way too much and you know I'm no stranger to criticizing the team.
I’m generally an optimistic person and have looked forward to the Rockets season every year since 1987. I watched every game during the Silas era and maintained my optimism. This deadline malfeasance along with the Ime extension has bludgeoned the excitement out of me. You are right about the schedule and I’m sure we’ll win our share of games. I just don’t think this team is going to do anything to address our core issues until Ime is gone. He outlined his philosophy and quadrupling down on size. It’s not going to work. The off-season is going to be a total snooze fest waiting on our lord and saviour diminutive PG to return and save the day.
How about this perspective: The second highest net rating has a pretty good shot at a title and if we lose badly, Udoka's voice will never hold as much sway in the locker room again. If we exit in the first round, no one is listening to Ime's bigs and rebounding idea anymore. Let's be honest it's his only offensive idea. That would be two straight playoff appearances losing to a lower seed. I'm super confident about our long term future. I have a good feeling about the second half. At the end of the day Ime is very egotistical so when the losses pile up, it forces him to change. I just wish it didn't take half an NBA season for him to open his eyes a bit.
If Stone feels like he put together a championship team this year, then there is no reason to blow it up as this will be essentially the same team next year. That is essentially what he is saying there. Does giving up Sengun for AD or Harden make us more of a contender? No. If there was not a trade that drastically improved the team, I agree with his decision. Could he have pulled off a DFS+first rounder for a vet guard? Maybe. But I don’t think that move ultimately makes us a contender this year and probably hurts us in the future. I understand the ranting, but unfortunately the deal that we needed just wasn’t there. We are still a first round homecourt advantage team. We are not bottom dwellers or stuck in late-lottery purgatory. We are in very good shape for now and the future. Everyone needs to chill out and enjoy what we’ve got.
If we had Adams? I don't know man. Love Sengun but for this one season we'd probably be better. Adams/Capela Durant Bari/Tari Harden Amen/Sheppard Oof. That's a hell of a team. The problem of course is that it's a dead end. If we don't win it, we start rebuilding again immediately. Also Sengun is worth way more than Harden in a trade. We'd be losing that deal badly.
I don't get it. So White gets traded to the Celtics, the team plays better. You are not giving any credit to White. This is as non-sensical as it gets. This is like if a 1995 NBA fan say Drexler trade didn't improve the Rockets because everyone played better that playoffs to win the title. Yes, I will bet against this team being on a 60-win pace for the rest of the season. Feel free to lay out the bet of your choice. Perhaps a donation to a charity, to tipjar, anything else to your liking. Let's limit it at $100 to not get carried away. But we can definitely revisit this at the end of the regular season and see who's prediction is more accurate.
Soon as Fred went down it was basically over when we had no way of trading his salary for the replacement. Adam going down was the nail in the coffin, I believe KD will play “Safe” getting his stats to get into All-NBA team while not risking going extra mile to win the game. I think our young core other than Amen are worried about getting shopped next off season making them anxious to play their own level. I don’t think you can build a championship team where two of your three stars cannot shoot beyond 10ft out and even worse when they have big camping under the rim. Opponent using Center to guard Amen can be punished if your bigs can score from the three but we just have worst mix of players who can’t cover other’s weaknesses
Regarding White/Drexler - yes, if the Rudy T led Rockets had a better second half each of the past 3 seasons, then I would be unlikely to assign the 4th such second half turnaround to Clyde. I would simply conclude that the trade was lateral. Derrick White shot 42% from the field and 30% from 3 that season bro, he's not the primary reason they made a finals run. 11 points and 3.5 assists. He started 4 games. The reason they won that title is because their offense improved dramatically (from below average to 5th best) and that had nothing to do with White's offense. They also completely committed to a switch-heavy defense - again, White was not the reason they weren't doing this earlier. It was completely tactical. I'm game for the bet but are you sure you want to do this? We have the most home games remaining and one of the easiest schedules remaining in the league. We are the 2nd best home team in the league and have the 2nd highest net rating. Even if nothing improves internally, we're going to win more. It feels like (and I genuinely don't mean disrespect) I'm betting on the obvious. The same level of talent/competence will win more games since those coming games are easier. It would be an anomaly for this team to not win more in the remaining schedule. If you're up for it, I guess the terms you're suggesting: if they go 20-12 I win (.625 winning percentage). If they do any worse than that, you win. My only input: the condition is that none of Sengun/Amen/Durant miss half or more of the games. I think that's fair because we're not discussing luck, we're discussing whether this rotation as constructed is good enough to win this much. Confirmed for $100 to tipjar?
This is headed towards another rebuild because the young core and the draft pick collection are quickly becoming negative assets. That’s why he keeps emphasizing, “everyone wants our players”. Fire Stone and Ime. Let some real basketball minds come in and fix the situation. At this point I don’t want Stone to make anymore transactions. Leave the team as it is, don’t touch nothing else on the way out.
60-win pace you wrote in your previous post is 60-22 record, or 73.17% winning percentage. With 32 games left that's 23.4 wins. But I can drop that down to 23 wins. So if they go 23-9 to end the season, then I'll donate $100 to the tip jar. I will also credit them with a win if there's a meaningless game at the end that they are resting players for, and they are up against a crappy team they otherwise should beat.
